The unofficial, unauthorized view of Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org. The Ancestry Insider reports on, defends, and constructively criticizes these two websites and associated topics. The author attempts to fairly and evenly support both.

Friday, March 27, 2009

This article is a historic snapshot of the rollout of New Family Search (NFS) in the period "Before the Red Zone" (B.R.Z.). The Red Zone has also been called "the extended Wasatch Front" and consists of Utah and Idaho. Like the letter Y among vowels, Las Vegas was sometimes included. This article previously appeared as "Temple Districts Using New FamilySearch." The current article can still be found at that link.

This map shows the state of the New FamilySearch (NFS) roll out as of the date indicated. Green dots are districts using NFS. Yellow dots have been notified the rollout will occur soon, usually within 3 or 4 months. Red dots are other temples and purple squares indicate where future temples are in various stages of construction. Internet Explorer users can hover over a dot to see the name of the temple.

Temple Districts With New FamilySearch

This table shows temple districts using NFS and the order in which they were released. LDS Tech states that the rollout "will take about 18 months from when the first temple is put online," which was St. Louis on 26-Jun-2007. In this and subsequent tables, asterisks (*) mark new or recently updated information.

Temple Districts In Transition

Registered family history consultants and leaders are notified when their temple districts are about to change to NFS. (Consultants and leaders may register at https://consultant.familysearch.org/ .) The initial notification usually gives an approximate time frame of 3 or 4 months for the NFS release, but not a specific date. A final notification gives the date to stop using TempleReady, the date all temple district members can access NFS and the date the temple will begin using NFS.

The table below shows an alphabetical list of temple districts that have received notification, but are not yet using NFS.

.

District

Notified

Release Target

Temples Possibly on Hold

.

District

Date of Info

Information

.

Boise Idaho

Oct-2008

On hold

.

Idaho Falls Idaho

Oct-2008

On hold

.

Rexburg Idaho

Oct-2008

On hold

.

Twin Falls Idaho

Oct-2008

On hold

.

Bountiful Utah

Oct-2008

On hold

.

Jordan River Utah

Oct-2008

On hold

.

Logan Utah

Oct-2008

On hold

.

Manti Utah

Oct-2008

On hold

.

Monticello Utah

Oct-2008

On hold

.

Mt. Timpanogos Utah

Oct-2008

On hold

.

Ogden Utah

Oct-2008

On hold

.

Provo Utah

Oct-2008

On hold

.

Salt Lake

Oct-2008

On hold

.

St. George Utah

Oct-2008

On hold

.

Vernal Utah

Oct-2008

On hold

Temples Using Non-Roman Writing Systems

If Hong Kong is delayed until 2009 as rumored, it may be that some or all of this group will be delayed as well.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Ancestry.com's Gary Gibb recently announced the demise of the U.S. Public Records Index, a database with a billion names culled from records created between 1984-2008. The database will be replaced with a new database of the same title, containing half that many names but not extending past 1990. Removing the post-1990 records opens the door for Ancestry.com to try for a fifth time to establish a mutually beneficial partnership with a living-people-finder website.

(I have wonderful intentions to write an article about corporate memory and the role good product specs play. While doing some work for Hewlett Packard I saw a wonderful example. Good multi-generational, internal product/project/program specifications, descriptions, and outcomes outlast today's transitory workforce. Not that such specs guarantee an organization won't make the same mistake twice... Not that I'm saying Ancestry.com is making the same mistake twice... But I digress...)

Here's a history of Ancestry.com's dead live-people finders.

BigHugs.com

Back in 2002 The Generations Network (TGN), then known as MyFamily.com, Inc., acquired a live-people finding website, BigHugs.com. See the press release for more detail. You can see to the left how, as best as the Internet Archive can remember, BigHugs looked before it died:

MyFamily People Finder

Next, MyFamily.com, Inc., produced a service on the MyFamily.com website called MyFamily People Finder. It looked like this before it died:

Without breaking any NDA, I can say as a knowledgeable person in this marketplace that a non-living-people-finding company that wanted to produce such a website would generally want to partner with a living-person-finding company to provide the data for such a website. Click here to see an example of the detailed information that could be obtained from public data sources and provided on such a website.

Long Lost People

MyFamily People Finder was replaced with a totally separate website named Long Lost People. Before it died, it looked like this:

I don't know if I can call this one dead or not. I was able to do a search and get veiled results, although I couldn't get the terms and conditions or privacy policy links to work. Its probably an invitation for civil suits to operate the site in this condition. Obviously, it's not drawing any attention from TGN.

I've shown the results of a search for Barack Obama below. Notice the link to Ancestry.com that I've circled at the bottom-right. The link implies that the same results and more are available there.

Sure enough, the same results—and more—are available in the soon-to-perish U.S. Public Records Index database on Ancestry.com.

What was that next website?

Some time after the U.S. Public Records Index appeared on Ancestry.com, I started noticing links to yet another living-people finder website among the search results. Was it www.mypeoplereports.com? No; if memory serves, it had dark brown text on a not-as-dark brown background.

One example where a link used to lead to the third-party website was the left side of the Old Search UI result list. I've shown it circled, to the left. At the time of this writing, that link merely goes to the U.S. Public Records Index.

Another link was located on the individual result page. I can't remember if it was below the data in the record or in the Page Tools box, which used to be located to the right of the data. I've shown an old example that doesn't show the link, circled, below.

Apparently, this partnership didn't meet with one of the party's expectations, as the links are gone and TGN has found another partner.

MyLife.com

That brings us to #5. Along with the change to the U.S. Public Records Index, Gibbs announced a partnership with another living-people-finder website, MyLife.com, formerly Reunion.com. BEWARE! Numerous complaints have been posted about this choice. See, for example,

ABOVE ALL, DO NOT GIVE mylife.com ANY LOGINS OR PASSWORDS TO YOUR ACCOUNTS ON OTHER WEBSITES OR YOUR EMAIL!

I'm sorry. By the time you read this the old U.S. Public Records Index will be gone. Had I given you enough warning, you could have saved all the records you needed from the database to your tree. These links are supposed to continue to work after the new version comes online.

Wait a minute... Same database name... Links all continue to work... Year coverage drops in half... Number of names drops in half... Something about this new and improved database seems vaguely familiar...

Monday, March 23, 2009

FamilySearch has issued an announcement designed to ward off confusion that might be caused by the similarly named Church History Library and Family History Library. The two facilities are both owned and operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and are both located on the Church's Salt Lake City downtown "Temple Square" campus. The Church History Library is moving across the street from its present location in the east wing of the Church Office Building.

The statement reads in part,

The temporary closure and relocation of the Church History Library will have no effect on the Family History Library's operations and services as they are completely separate facilities. The Family History Library will remain open.

The Church History Library has announced the following regarding its temporary closure:

The Church History Library will close 10 April 2009. It will open again for service on Monday, 22 June 2009.

Duplication requests will not be accepted until the new facility is opened.

Other walk-in and call-in requests will be accepted through noon on 10 April 2009. E-mail requests will no longer be accepted until the new facility is opened.

Call the customer service staff at 801-240-2272 should you have questions.

One exciting new service you should try when the Church History Library reopens is imaging of select microfilm resources. Remind me in July and I'll tell you more about this service.

Church History Library's 48 year journey

"The new LDS Church History Library will technically have taken even longer [than the Salt Lake Temple]—more than 48 years to build—when it opens early next year," according to Lynn Arave, Deseret News writer. The Salt Lake Temple took an incredibly long 40 years. But over 48 years ago, on 7 October 1960 the Deseret News announced a Church history archive and genealogical building to be built where the new Church History Library and Archive now stands.

The original plan for that building called for 11 stories of steel and concrete, with 400,000 square feet of space. A later plan increased the height to 15 stories. The building was to house the church historian's office, library and the archives/library of the genealogical society.

Several evolutions made a 15 story structure unnecessary. One was the adoption of high-density storage equipment. Another was the Granite Mountain Records Vault in Little Cottonwood Canyon which began service in 1963. The Vault contains about 65,000 square feet of floor space.

Another change was the decision not to create a mission training center in the four lower floors of the Church Office Building! That led to temporary homes on these floors for the Family History Library in the west wing and the Church History Library in the east wing. In 1985 the Family History Library moved to its current building on West Temple. The Family History Library has five floors and 142,000 square feet of space.

And this year the Church History Library and Archives moves to its new location on the site originally planned for it some 48 years ago, into a building with five stories and 230,000 square feet of floor space.

Friday, March 20, 2009

While you're waiting for my remaining reports of the FamilySearch Developers conference, I thought I could depend on the kindness of strangers to provide you coverage of the Conference on Computerized Family History and Genealogy held last Friday and Saturday at BYU.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

A new release of FamilySearch Family Tree has probably been released by the time you read this, so I thought I'd report what I learned about it at the FamilySearch Developers Conference.

One nice thing about covering the 2009 BYU Family History Technology Workshop live last Thursday was not having to go back and try and write an article out of my cryptic notes. Since I didn't do that for the FamilySearch Developers Conference last Wednesday, I still owe you several reports.

After lunch Tim Cross and Jason Butterfield made a presentation about FamilySearch Family Tree. Tim is the product manager and Jason is the lead engineer.

Tim Cross

Tim mentioned that the team is thinking about making the various software components of Family Tree (developed using a computer language known as Flex) available to 3rd-party software developers. That would give 3rd-party developers a tremendous head start in producing web sites that tied into the pedigree database sometimes called Common Pedigree or New FamilySearch.

He also shared a slide with us that looked like this diagram. Tim told us that New FamilySearch, the "Classic" user interface, is used by about 20,000 different people each day, and they view about a million and three-quarter pages per day. By comparison, the new Family Tree user interface is used by very few people. One reason is that Family Tree doesn't have all the features that the Classic Client has. Tim's goal is to make using Family Tree so compelling that by November, the situation will be reversed, with most people using Family Tree and just a few still using the Classic Client.

There is an entire list of features that they know are necessary before that will happen:

Full temple experience

The ability to add, update, and delete information are some of the features added this week

A relationship column is needed for move records so one can make certain the move is right

A "What's Ready?" or "You've Got Names" feature to flag where temple work is needed on your pedigree

Provide the ability to login to Helper mode to assist another person

Tim mentioned that after #9 is implemented, flags or push-pins on the pedigree could be used to indicate all sorts of conditions that might need your attention, such as events that need sources, or possible record matches in Record Search. (No, he didn't say "shaky leaf."

While not at this conference, Tim has been saying some new and interesting things at other conferences:

For patrons bringing FORs from out of state, Idaho and Utah temples will soon be able to handle FORs. In other words, temples in the red zone are converting to NFS, even though NFS is not being rolled out to patrons. This is possible because a temple using NFS has the capability of accepting a TempleReady submission.

This explains the various, odd rumors going around that the Such-and-such Utah Temple is getting NFS even though family history centers and consultants aren't hearing anything about it. We had someone come into our Family History Center recently carrying cards printed from an FOR at the Provo Temple.

The goal is to have NFS installed in all temples within 45 days, or about 1 May 2009.

NFS will be released in the red zone by stake rather than by temple district.

It will be released to 5 or 6 stakes a week. Then they will watch to see that the system is able to handle the additional users.

They anticipate that by the end of the year, everyone will be on NFS.

Jason Butterfield

Remember, Jason's a programmer, so his presentation portion was more technical. He showed us the diagram below. It shows how pieces like Family Tree, Record Search, software components, and so forth fit together.

Family Tree and Record Search now share a common library of software components. There are 25 different components, among them: pedigree viewer, timeline, search, image viewer, event map, temple list, person summary, and family group record. The Data Model layer defines interfaces used by components to talk to services. Some of the services and domain pillars are: Family Tree/Common Pedigree, Authorities, Identity, Record Search, Ordinance Reservation, and Temple.

By this time I was starting to phase out. "Pillars blah, blah, ... share a common queue... blah, blah ... to call the API. This is the same API that 3rd party developers call, so we're on an equal footing."

In the question and answers, the only snippets that caught my attention were:

Long list of reserved temple requests take a long time to display and come up piece meal. [This] week's release will be faster; it will request 30 at a time.

When displaying the pedigree, we get batches of 3 people at a time. Version 2 API will be faster and we may revisit this batch size.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

I see numbers and various stats published pretty often and I think, wouldn't it be great to have all of them collected together in one place? I've decided this is the place! I'll add new numbers as I see them, leaving a historic record to show where we've come from. Feel free to leave a comment with newer numbers and the source of your information.

Thanks to Arlene H Eakle for posting these opening numbers on her blog.

Friday, March 13, 2009

Ancestry Insider covers conference live

On Thursday I tried a grand experiment: live coverage of the BYU Family History Technology Workshop using Twitter. If I can figure out an easy way to do it, I may re-post the coverage here on my blog. But I may not, so if you're interested in hearing what transpired at the BYU Family History Technology Workshop yesterday (Thursday, 12 March 2009), visit my Twitter site, http://twitter.com/ancestryinsider . I've got the most comprehensive coverage of this event that you can find anywhere. Period.

But be warned: the posts are in reverse chronological order! That means you need to start at the bottom of the page and work your way to the top. How confusing! Once you finish a page, click the "Newer" link at the bottom of the page to move to the next page in order.

Here are some starting points from which to work backwards. Click on the link and scan through the tweets until you find the one shown in the list below. Then work your way towards the top of the page and click Newer. On each newer page, start reading at the bottom.

Why Mormons Build Temples

At the FamilySearch developers conference on Wednesday, Gordon Clarke mentioned the July 2008 milestone when the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints endorsed mainstream use of the Internet. (See "Blogging at FamilySearch.") Even as Clarke spoke, the Church posted a new video on YouTube that might be of interest to those curious about the Church's intense interest in genealogy.

Given recent public interest in the Church's temples, "Why Mormons Build Temples" gives 3 minutes of information from the Church's point of view. If media coverage has made you curious, I recommend watching the video not so much for the information as for the mood, images and music because these reflect the deep feelings of reverence Church members feel towards temples, which is something you won't get from outside media coverage.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

As I mentioned earlier, the 2009 FamilySearch Software Awards were announced and handed out during lunch on Wednesday (11 March 2008).

"The purpose is to publicly and formally celebrate the software achievements of those developers and companies that are making important contributions to the family history and genealogy industry," said Gordon Clarke, FamilySearch Web services product manager.

The Best Features Awards were judged from among products and vendors that are FamilySearch certified, with the exception of TreeSeek. (I believe Gordon Clarke told us that TreeSeek was done by Matt Misbach prior to the time FamilySearch hired him to work on the New FamilySearch Family Tree team.) A panel of judges compared the products. Clarke told us that all the judges except two were outside FamilySearch. The Best Features FamilySearch Awards for 2009 are:

Contestants for the Developer Choice Awards were nominated by the development community and voted on by the development community, making them true, developers' choice. The Developer Choice 2009 Awards are:

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

At the start of the keynote I was concerned that I'd not seen ANYONE from Ancestry.com. But fifteen minutes in, I saw someone arrive. At lunch I saw a couple more. Their numbers were down from a dozen or so last year. Of course, I was one of those and this year I was with FamilySearch. Actually, I paid my own way last year and Ancestry.com gave me time off to attend.

The slides on the CD are sure different than what some presenters showed. It's amazing how much things can change between the CD deadline and the conference. Some presenters announced decisions made just in the last two weeks.

The software used to record the sessions for use by later developers was a real pain. I don't think there was a single presenter that wasn't affected by it. Some started late while equipment was set up. Some had slides that were affected. Others were not able to demonstrate their APIs on the machines provided for presenters.

Gordon Clarke, product manager for the FamilySearch web platform and 3rd party development organized the conference and gave a kickoff presentation following the keynote. He reported that there are 481 developers signed up for the program. Of those, 211 have received API reference system accounts. Of those, 48 projects are in some stage of development. Of those, 22 have become affiliates and are working towards certification. Of those, 9 products have received certification! What a long way we have come!

Clarke grew up watching X-15 tests over Edwards Air Force Base during recess at a nearby kindergarten. He showed a clip of milestones in the space race. I couldn't find it online, but it is similar in tone to this one, except for the NASA promotion. Then he challenged us to a "family race" in place of the "space race" to create a genealogical ecosystem where no single entity dominates and all win by embracing Windley's vision of Open Data.

Clarke closed by announcing the conference's 3 tracks: FamilySearch APIs, 3rd party libraries (computer code for connecting programs with the FamilySearch APIs) and Emerging Technologies, and then dismissed us to go to class.

OK. I lied. Before dismissing us, Clarke announced the public release of the FamilySearch Wiki API. This API is available today. It is available to everyone. It is even available to the Wasatch Front. And it is available to all, members of the Church or not.

When they say everyone, I guess they meant it.

To learn more about the API and to start using it (if you are of the programming variety), go to

This is also the web service endpoint. Available services include categories, links, images, open search and end-user watch lists.

Maybe tomorrow I'll have time to share some insights from the tracks, and maybe I'll be too busy reporting on tomorrow's conference. Either way, expect the complete list of award winners at 9:00am MDT.

P.S. I might try total flow of consciousness reporting using Twitter at tomorrow's conference. Then I won't have to edit my notes for intelligent posting later. What a scary thought. If it happens, it'll be at http://twitter.com/AncestryInsider . Stay tuned...

As I mentioned earlier, the 2009 FamilySearch Software Awards were announced and handed out during lunch today. [Oops! I was just asked to embargo this information until tomorrow at 9:00am. Well, if there was another blogger at the lunch, you might find out before then. Look for this article again, tomorrow. -- The Insider]

"The purpose is to publicly and formally celebrate the software achievements of those developers and companies that are making important contributions to the family history and genealogy industry," said Gordon Clarke, FamilySearch Web services product manager.

The Best Features Awards were judged from among products and vendors that are FamilySearch certified. A panel of judges compared the products against the categories. Clarke told us that all the judges except two were outside FamilySearch. The Best Features FamilySearch Awards for 2009 are:

Best Web Features

Best Desktop Features

Best Productivity Features: [RootsMagic 4 has already announced they received an award for their dashboard, so I don't have to embargo that. I don't remember if there were other awards given in this category.]

Best Use of Media

Best Tree-Cleaning or Syncing Interfaces: [RootsMagic 4 has already announced they received "Easiest to Synch" award, so I don't have to embargo that. There was at least one other vendor award in this category.]

Contestants for the Developer Choice Awards were nominated by the development community and voted on by the development community, making them true, developers' choice. The Developer Choice 2009 Awards are:

The keynote was given by Phil Windley, PhD, CTO of Kynetx and former CIO for the state of Utah. His title was, "The Power of Open Data."

Phil started with a story from his days as CIO for the state. In 2003 the Deseret News did a story about gas pump accuracy. They got a dump of inspection data and posted it on the web. Two weeks later the data was outdated, making this NOT an example of Open Data.

Jon Udell, a friend and writer for Infoworld, noticed something about Amazon book URLs. They include the ISBN number, albeit identified as an ASIN number. Jon was aware that many library catalogs can search using an ISBN as part of the URL. He was able to create a simple browser favorite (or bookmark) that allows users to lookup books in their local library while viewing books on Amazon. For more information, see "The LibraryLookup Project."

This is an example of Open Data. Meaningful URLs and standards allow the creation of serendipitous applications. "That's the power of Open Data," said Windley.

One-size-fits-all web portals are losing traction. Windley calls this "deperimiterization." We're seeing highly specialized websites arise that provide specific functionalities. For example, DISQUS provides a comment system for blogs. A little JavaScript allows blog owners to use the DISQUS system in place of the default comment system from their blog software. Eventbrite is another example. One can embed something on a website to schedule, promote and manage event attendance.

Windley closed by showing an application he wrote for his website, Utah Politics which utilizes a Twitter site, utahpolitics. His app searches among all those "following" @utahpolitics. If any of his followers post a "tweet" containing "#utpol", then it is "retweeted" back to the utahpolitics tweet site, where it can be fed to his website.

Windley pointed out that Twitter's API creators didn't foresee: retweeters, analytics, hash tags, or a hundred other things we're seeing developed from the API.

"The value of the data is unforeseen," said Windley. "Open Data enables serendipity." He pointed out that Open Data is allowing creative additions that are giving value to producers and consumers alike. "And that is the power of Open Data."

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The Ancestry Insider

The Ancestry Insider is consistently a top ten and readers’ choice award winner. He has been an insider at both the two big genealogy organizations, FamilySearch and Ancestry.com. He was Time Magazine Man of the Year in both 1966 and 2006. And he really is descended from an Indian princess.

Biography

The Ancestry Insider was a readers’ choice for the top four genealogy news and resources blogs, part of Family Tree Magazine’s “40 Best Genealogy Blogs” for 2010. He reports on the two big genealogy organizations, Ancestry.com and FamilySearch. He was named a “Most Popular Genealogy Blogs” by ProGenealogists, and has received Family Tree Magazine’s “101 Best Web Sites” award every year since 2008. A genealogical technologist, the Insider has a post-graduate technology degree and holds a dozen technology patents in the United States and abroad. He has done genealogy since 1972 and has worked in the computer industry since 1978. He was Time Magazine Man of the Year in both 1966 and 2006. And he really is descended from an Indian princess.

Legal Notices

The Ancestry Insider is written independently of Ancestry.com and FamilySearch. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect those of Ancestry.com or FamilySearch.

E-mails and posted messages may be republished and may be edited for content, length, and editorial style.

The Ancestry Insider may be biased by the following factors: 1) The Ancestry Insider accepts products and services free of charge for review purposes. 2) The author of the Ancestry Insider is employed by the Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, owner and sponsor of FamilySearch. 3) The author is a believing, practicing member of the same Church. 4) The author is a former stock-holder and employee of the business now known as Ancestry.com and maintains many friendships established while employed there. 5) It is the editorial policy of this column to be generally supportive of Ancestry.com and FamilySearch. 6) The author is an active volunteer for the National Genealogical Society.

"Ancestry Insider" does not refer to Ancestry.com. Trademarks used herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The Ancestry Insider is solely responsible for any silly, comical, or satirical trademark parodies presented as such herein.

All content is copyrighted by the Ancestry Insider unless designated otherwise. For content copyrighted by the Ancestry Insider, permission is granted for non-commercial republication as long as you give credit and you link back to the original.